Moving the migrants

With hundreds of thousands of migrants on a cross-country journey in search of a new life requesting asylum all appearing at once, Europe as a whole is in panic and cannot agree on how to accommodate these uninvited guests.

Both the pro-migrants and anti-migrants have been rather rigid in their views, but what they need to alleviate the migrant issue is to reach an adult compromise which would be slightly bitter for both sides while ultimately meeting both of their goals in certain aspects.

In the past couple days, hope has sprung from a proposal that would grant asylum, political protection from a country, to 160,000 people by imposing a quota that would list the number of migrants each country would take in.

However, that proposal was quickly shot down.

“Germany on Friday failed to persuade Hungary and three other central European partners to accept joint European Union action and a quota to distribute migrants from the Middle East,” Alison Smale and Dan Bilefsky of The New York Times reported.

Hungary and the other anti-migrant countries may seem heartless, but it is understandable from their standpoint. One could be worried about the effects of a large influx of population and the responsibility of providing protection to them.

Not to mention giving the EU control of a quota should cause wariness as it is quite likely for the EU to increase the quota in the future.

Furtermore, the sea of migrants is not dwindling any time soon. As Greg Myre of NPR reports that 4.1 million Syrians “have fled their country since the country’s civil war began in 2011.”

According to Myre, 1.9 million Syrians reside in Turkey and another 1.1 million are in Lebanon.

However, that does not excuse these anti-migrant countries from stretching a hand out to those in need.

While Hungary has a let a number of migrants through their borders to reach Austria, their treatment of them is almost reminiscent of a concentration camp.

“Footage has emerged of migrants being thrown bags of food at a Hungarian camp near the border with Serbia,” the BBC wrote.

Frankly, the footage and pictures are shocking and disturbing. These people are held like “cattle in pens” and, according to Human Rights Watch, they lacked sufficient food and medical care.

The fact is that these are real people.

While Hungary begrudgingly allowed these people in their country, they have no right to treat them in this manner. No human has the right to treat others like the dirt beneath their feet.

A lush red carpet does not need to be rolled out for these migrants, but a level of respect for them as fellow human beings in a bind should not need to be said.

A number of these Syrians have picked up their safe, but uncomfortable dwellings, in the hopes of a better life in a richer country like Germany.

One cannot blame anybody for attempting to improve their lives, but the sheer number of these hopeful migrants is problematic.

“The line of people wanting to move to Europe and America doesn’t end there, because it doesn’t end at all,” wrote Jonah Goldberg of National Review. “Demand outstrips supply by orders of magnitude”

The many Syrians scattered across the world and other residents of Middle-Eastern countries will hear of the lives of those that made it in Germany and like those that migrate to America, they will follow suit in pursuit of a roof over their head instead of the flimsy cover of a tent that is offered in some refugee camps.

Again, what is needed for the betterment of both Europe and the migrants is a compromise.

“The EU has failed to see that refugee and asylum policy must have three distinct components,” Walter Russell Mead of The Wall Street Journal explained. “The compassionate embrace of those in great need, a tough-minded effort to reduce the flow at the source by correcting or preventing the problems that give rise to it, and an effective border-control regime that limits the number of refugees and migrants who reach EU soil.”

Mead is onto something as he acknowledges the need for compassion while facing the reality that not everybody can be helped.

A reality of life is not everybody can be saved, but we can always try to save as many as we can.